When youÂ’re working on a development team thatÂ’s managed traditionally, knowing how best to convince management to begin using agile methods can be incredibly difficult. When I found myself in that position, I repeatedly approached my project manager to make a case for Scrum. I told him it would help our team produce functional software sooner, at a lower cost, and with less anxiety for the both of us. But he didnÂ’t really hear what I was saying until he heard it from someone else. More specifically, I passed on a great white paper on agile development and Scrum that did my talking for me. Once my manager heard someone elseÂ—who had been doing agile and Scrum in a professional capacity for yearsÂ—say exactly what IÂ’d been saying, it persuaded him to take agile seriously.

Well, I just found another document like that one and I’m excited to share it with you. It’s also worth noting that it was authored by Michael James, a Certified Scrum Trainer with some truly impressive credentials and deep experience transforming organizations to Scrum. Making it all the more ideal for pitching Scrum to management, the Refcard is organized in a way that information can be absorbed even at a glance (lots of bullets, lots of illustrations). It begins by considering the basic makeup of the Scrum framework, such as its roles, meetings, and artifacts. From there, James considers what kinds of projects need Scrum the most, what relationship it bears to other practices (like lean manufacturing), and how large organizations can cope with the challenges of scaling. It doesn’t cover everything (not even close), but it covers enough to get the attention of your project manager—especially if he’s seen some failure lately.